Monday, June 22, 2009

Support for a Container Garden - Cages and Teepees

I am using a few different supports for my containers. The first one is called the Ultomato tomato support and I am using it for three of my tomatoes - Brandywine, Sungold, and Husky Cherry Red. The stakes are 5 ft tall and have adjustable side clips. Once placed in the pot they offer about 4 ft of growing space.

The second support is a teepee made of five 6 ft stakes. I planted the peas in this pot and they should have almost 5 ft of climbing room.

The third support is a regular tomato cage. It is a heavy duty 54 inch cage, but I trimmed the legs down in order to make it fit into the pot. I am using these cages for my patio and better bush tomatoes, both eggplants, and my yellow bell pepper.

And the last support is a decorative metal spiral support for the cucumber. It is 41 inches tall.

I used the largest tomato cages that I could find for my pots because they are made of thicker wire and seem much more sturdy. But they were also much too tall for a container, so I cut the ends with a bolt cutter. The bottom ring is now resting on the soil which also adds stability. Now I'm ready for those tomatoes to really grow! High winds and thunderstorms should not be a problem! (If you do this, be careful with the bolt cutter because the metal pieces really fly off once they are cut - I just closed my eyes and turned my head out of the way. Some people may not agree, but I've noticed that the elements of excitement, danger and high adventure are definitely present in gardening!)

To make the teepee for my peas I fastened the stakes together at the top with a black zip-tie.

Here you can see most of the containers, and how it all looks together.